A forty percent day when you’re sick or sad can be your hundred percent. Count it.

What you have available changes from day to day, and a fixed standard ignores that completely. If you are ill, or flattened by something, getting through the basics can take everything you have, which makes it a full effort rather than a weak one. Effort gets measured against what you had that morning.

On a bad day, set the bar at two or three things and call it done when they are done. Say the count out loud, because giving yourself the credit is the part nobody else can do for you.